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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Now that I'm finished reviewing the Eldar codex, I'm going to go over the various Chapter Tactics available for Space Marines. Of course, I'll be going over the ones in the codex, but Forgeworld recently updated the rules for all of the Space
Marine Chapters and characters that they have produced. Even better, the rules
are all available for free. You can consider it an expansion for Codex: Space
Marines. It’s available here:

Of course, I have to start with my own Chapter, the
Executioners. While they are Imperial Fist successors (and I’ve been playing
them as such), they are divergent enough to warrant their own Chapter Tactics.
First up, they have Bitter Mettle,
which means they ignore all negative LD modifiers. This is essentially a better
Stubborn, which never was that great
before. That said, it’s not so bad anymore because it’s not an alternative to
the old Combat Tactics. It makes your
marines just a little more dependable, which is never a bad thing.

Monday, October 28, 2013

Wraithlords are the Eldar equivalent of a Dreadnought, a
massive (well, they used to be) wraithbone chassis piloted by the soul of a
dead hero. The Wraithlord is quite hard to kill, with 3 T8 wounds and a 3+ armor
save, and he packs a fair punch with 3 S8 attacks as a monstrous creature. He
can carry two heavy weapons so he’s a decent fire support unit, and he can
carry a ghostglaive, which is master-crafted and gives him +1S. He also comes
with two shuriken catapults, which you can (and should) exchange for flamers.

The Wraithlord is a very useful generalist unit. He can
carry two heavy weapons, meaning that he adds to your army’s firepower, and
he’s a threatening assault unit, so he makes a good counter-attack unit to
support your firebase. His one real downfall is his slow speed, so don’t expect
him to advance on the enemy and make it into combat early enough to be useful. It’s
also important to note that Wraithlords are characters, and can tie up even
very nasty assault units by challenging out their characters. I’ve been on the
other side of this and it’s tremendously frustrating.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The Falcon is, in fluff at least, the Eldar main battle tank
and the most common vehicle on the battlefield. It certainly was in previous
editions, when a Falcon with holofields was absurdly difficult to kill.
Unfortunately, the Falcon has lost its place in this edition.

The Falcon has the standard Eldar grav-tank chassis and
armor, and comes armed with a pulse laser (essentially a 2 shot bright lance
without the Lance rule), a shuriken
cannon, and twin-linked shuriken catapults. The cannon can be upgraded to any
of the standard Eldar heavy weapons, and the catapults can be upgraded to a
shuriken cannon. The Falcon can carry 6 passengers, so it can act as a
transport for a small squad.

Monday, October 21, 2013

The last squad on my list to fix up was my Guardians. They were the first Eldar squad I painted back when I was in high school, and it really shows. Here's a shot of their original paintjob.

They needed the standard rebasing and repainting of gems, as well as repainting the discolored whit on their helmets and some general shading and highlighting. I also desperately needed to repaint the lime green vanes on their backs. That's some 3rd Edition silliness.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Dark Reapers are unique among aspect warriors. While most aspects
specialize in engaging the enemy at short range, Reapers prefer to sit at the
back of the field and blow the enemy apart with missiles. Lots and lots of
missiles.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Sorry I missed some posts. I've been traveling and I didn't have time to schedule some posts in advance. I'm back now, and in this post I'll be showing off my refurbished Rangers. Dardreg Gargant yelled at me for not taking pictures before I refurbish my models, so here are a few of the old Rangers.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Next up on my Eldar improvement project were two squads of Dire Avengers. One squad, made from the current kit (well, before it was reduced to 5 models), was pretty simple. All they needed was rebasing, repainting the gems, and painting aspect runes on their helmets.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Crimson Hunters are the new aspect warriors in this codex,
and are the first aspect to pilot a vehicle (not just a vehicle, a flyer).
Crimson Hunters are pure air superiority fighters, armed with two bright lances
and a pulse laser for 4 S8 shots each turn. Even better, their Skyhunters rule allows them to re-roll
failed armored penetration rolls against flyers. They also come with Vector Dancer,making them the most maneuverable flyers outside of Forgeworld. They
have the option to switch their bright lances out for starcannons, but that
will greatly weaken them as vehicle hunters.

A single Crimson Hunter per detachment can be upgraded to an
Exarch, who is BS 5 and can score Precision
Shots in the same way as a character. The Exarch can take Night Vision, which will probably not be
too useful as flyers will never be on the table first turn when Night Fight is most prevalent, or Marksman’s Eye, which will once again
help them to snipe models. The Exarch upgrade is a bit pricy, but the upgrade
to BS 5 is important because none of their weapons are twin-linked.

The Crimson Hunter is great a hunting other flyers. The
standard version averages two damaging results against AV 12 flyers every time
it fires, and the Exarch averages 2.5 damaging hits against such targets. For
comparison, a Vendetta only scores 1.5 damaging hits on average in the same
situation. Unfortunately, Crimson Hunters are extremely fragile with AV 10 on
all sides. Their worst enemies are models with Interceptor; even a BS 4 quad gun has a reasonably good chance of
killing a Crimson Hunter before it has a chance to fire.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

As you read the following entries, you may get the impression that Fast Attack is my favorite section of the Eldar codex. This is absolutely true. I think the options here really support what I imagine as the Eldar style of war. They hit exceptionally fast and hard, but they have to be used carefully or the enemy will easily destroy them.

Swooping Hawks

Swooping Hawks were almost universally written off as a
useful unit in the last codex. Their biggest asset was that they didn’t have to
be on the table. I can happily report that they are now an excellent unit.
Coming in at the old cost of a Tactical Marine, Swooping Hawks come with the
standard aspect warrior profile and armor, as well as a jump pack and an
Assault 3 lasgun. I know it’s just a lasgun, but 3 shots per model at 24” is
pretty good. In addition, they can drop a blast template within 24” of where
they deep strike. It’s a large blast if the squad is 6 or more models and a
small blast otherwise, and it Ignores
Cover.

They’ve got a couple excellent special rules too. Heralds of Victory means that they never
deviate when they deep strike, while Skyleap
allows them to leave the table and deep strike back in on the next turn.
Between those two rules, they can easily reach any point on the table. No place
is off limits to them and no target is safe (well, except targets with high
toughness or good armor. They do have their limitations).